Latest Car News in India

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Hyundai minimizes its exports, will focus on domestic market

Hyundai Motor India, the country's biggest car exporter, has decided to shift focus from exports to the domestic market, which is showing signs of recovery after nearly two years of falling sales. The local unit of Seoulbased Hyundai Motor Company has stopped shipments from its Chennai plant to Europe, which will now be catered by the parent's plants in Turkey and the Czech Republic.

Hyundai Motor India contributed 45 per cent of the 5.50 lakh cars shipped from India in 2013-14. "We have shifted the focus to the Indian market, which is a priority and would like to increase our market share and volumes," said Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (marketing & sales) at Hyundai Motor India. "We have launched four new models in the past one year that have given huge incremental sales and taken our share to all-time high of 21 per cent in India. It has been about a month that we have stopped serving Europe, which used to be our single largest market with 40 per cent our exports shipped to that region," he said.

The automaker's exports are expected to dip 25 per cent to 1.9 lakh units in 2014, while annual domestic sales are estimated to rise 8 per cent to 4.10 lakh units. Last year, the company had exported 2.53 lakh units, while its domestic sales stood at 3.80 lakh units.